TEHRAN (FNA)- The cholera outbreak in Yemen which began in April, has now claimed 2,000 lives and has infected 500,000. The nation has been suffering from what the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as the “largest epidemic in the world” amid a non-stop bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia.

According to a statement released by the United Nation health agency, a total of 503,484 cases, suspected to be infected with cholera, and 1,975 deaths, attributable to the outbreak, were documented during the period in Yemen.

The statement added that the overall caseload had decreased considerably since July, but warned that the disease was still infecting an estimated 5,000 people each day.

“The spread of cholera has slowed significantly in some areas compared to peak levels but the disease is still spreading fast in more recently affected districts, which are recording large numbers of cases,” it further said, adding that more than 14 million Yemenis remain cut off from clean water and sanitation, and waste collection has no longer been carried out in major cities.

The agency announced that around 30,000 critical health workers had not been paid salaries during the past year and critical medicines were lacking.

“These doctors and nurses are the backbone of the health response – without them we can do nothing in Yemen. They must be paid their wages so that they can continue to save lives,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said, adding that "Yemen’s health workers are operating in impossible conditions. Thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, not enough medicines, not enough clean water."

More than half the country's medical centers have been bombed or closed due to lack of funds, there are widespread shortages of basic medicine and medical equipment necessary to treat the disease and 30,000 Yemeni health workers have not been paid this year.

The director of Yemen's national blood bank has also announced that the blood bank may be forced to close due to a lack of money after an international medical charity decided to end two years of support.

The head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in the war-torn country has also announced early August that Yemen's ongoing conflict and a “man-made” humanitarian catastrophe has “no end in sight", warning that nearly 7 million people are at risk of starvation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has declared late July that the number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen is expected to at least double by year’s-end to over 600,000.

"The country’s unprecedented cholera outbreak ravages an alarming -- and growing -- percentage of the population," the Red Cross said in a statement, Anadolu Agency reported.

"The ICRC experts expect the current number of suspected cholera cases to at least double by the end of 2017 to over 600,000 -- or one in every 45 Yemenis," it added.

"The great tragedy is that this cholera outbreak is a preventable, man-made humanitarian catastrophe. It is a direct consequence of a conflict that has devastated civilian infrastructure and brought the whole health system to its knees," ICRC President Peter Maurer stressed.

The head of anti-poverty NGO International humanitarian agency Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) denounced the humanitarian crisis in war-torn Yemen, which is also suffering from a cholera epidemic, as "an absolute shame on humanity".

"We are now in the 21st century and the current situation is an absolute shame on humanity," the head of the NGO Wolfgang Jamann told reporters after a five-day visit to the country, Gulf Times reported.

"Sixty percent of the country is food insecure and over half the population is unable [to access] safe drinking water," he said.

"Many areas in Yemen are just one step away from a famine situation," the body's CEO added, urging the international community to "end the suffering".

He also touched on the massive bloodshed and destruction which has been plaguing the country since Saudi Arabia began bombing the country in 2015.

"Thousands of civilians have died since the start of the conflict and millions more have been displaced inside the country," Jamann stressed.

The US and the UK have been providing the bulk of the military ordnance used by Saudi Arabia in the war against Yemen.

The UK has licensed 3.3 billion pounds worth of weapons since the beginning of Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen in March 2015.

The US also sealed a multibillion arms deal with Saudi Arabia when President Donald Trump made his maiden visit abroad in May. The deal, which is worth $350 billion over 10 years and $110 billion that will take effect immediately, was hailed by the White House as a significant expansion of the security relationship between Washington and Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 14,300 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has drove the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia's deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

Nearly 3.3 million Yemeni people, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition. The Al-Saud aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

The Oxfam charity group announced that the cholera epidemic in Yemen, which is the subject of a Saudi Arabian war and total embargo, is the largest recorded in modern history.

Yemen’s former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, singled out Saudi Arabia as the source of what the United Nations estimates to be the world’s worst cholera outbreak in Yemen.

The Russia Today Arabic news channel quoted Saleh as saying that the Saudi-led coalition was behind the spread of the highly contagious disease through the use of internationally banned weapons.

"The coalition is using devastating weapons such as cluster and thermobaric bombs which leave very harmful effects for the people of Yemen," he added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that suspected cases of cholera have been registered in 21 provinces across the country.

On mid-May, Yemen's Health Ministry also declared a state of emergency in the capital Sana'a in connection with the epidemic, while it has also announced that 21 of a total 22 Yemeni provinces are threatened by the disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 7.6 million Yemenis live in areas with a high risk of cholera transmission.

The WHO now classifies Yemen as one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in the world alongside Syria, South Sudan, Nigeria and Iraq.

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